Alcohol may protect trauma patients from later complications

Intoxicated trauma patients have a reduced risk for cardiac and renal complications, according to a study. "After an injury, if you are intoxicated there seems to be a substantial protective effect," says the author of the study. "But we don't fully understand why this occurs." Nearly 85,000 trauma patients with measured blood alcohol levels were included in the retrospective study, which analyzed 10 years of cases at level I and level II trauma units.View full story